Changes
by SerendipitousWays
Summary: Actually entering SOLDIER was anticlimactic. Well, not really. Fem!Cloud. A Squad Epsilon ficlet.


A Squad Epsilon AU.

Changes

Finally entering SOLDIER was anticlimactic.

Actually, that was untrue. Mostly.

Finally entering SOLDIER was best compared to competing in a multi-marathon all-terrain footrace, which they admittedly had kind of done. They had competed for months and sometimes years to finally place in the winner's circle, only to face-plant into the hard packed and thistle covered ground as they crossed the finish line. A month of medical leave and hives for all of it.

The end of the perpetual motion machine was jarring, and it began the moment they received their commission papers and were shuffled off to medical for their first round of SOLDIER treatments: the dreaded anticipation of the mako shots.

The delay was not without purpose, nothing in ShinRa was. It was simply that the first round of shots was the most spectacular – with the last round for First Classers coming in close second. The initial jump in strength was the most obvious of the adjustments that came around, being the designed one, tied in with the SOLDIER eyes and some heightened senses. Those senses were stronger in some, who ended up in isolation while they got used to the loud noises and pretty lights. Others got aggressive and were put in another kind of isolation: a specially purposed VR room where they could work out their issues without too many injuries, and under observation.

Always under observation: this was key.

For that first month, a new SOLDIER was never alone. Each recruit was assigned to a group, usually a squad, whose platoon and CO would look after them, and look out for the more _unique_ developments. The most dangerous were of course RRMs: the Random Rapid Mutation, which resulted in a monster. This was thankfully rare, though it did occur, but had not for several years. Partial Mutations were more common however. It was fairly normal to see SOLDIERs with ears and tails and things that did not belong on the human figure: no one seemed to not know Lieutenant Fair, who had a lovely pair of droopy ears hidden in his hair, clearly off a spaniel or some water-dog. On the other end of the spectrum was that Second with the tentacles. He was a nice guy, but no one really wanted too close to him anymore, except for that archivist, but that was the quiet ones for you. Meanwhile the poster boys of ShinRa all had variations of the same: one half of a set of wings sprouted in their first treatments, with the matching set appearing in their First treatments (or so the rumours went [mind, the rumours also called them generals, which was patently false, bar for Brigadier Hewley, and that was a field promotion.]). That one was just common enough that it could almost be predicted.

Which was probably how Cloud had come to be Lieutenant Colonel Sephiroth's assistant for the month.

She had been assigned to an all-female fire team under the Colonel. She spent her downtime with them, but they were one of the busier squads in the city and always on call, so she'd been shunted off to the office Sephiroth shared with his fellow Lieutenants of the Red Brigade. She'd been put to work as she was basically functional, and had been informed that she might be made an attaché as apparently she had been doing a good job in between the bouts of extreme narcolepsy that had been her only symptom until just now.

She had just roused herself from her most recent snooze to find that she had somehow managed to dislodge one of her braids, something that those three months of Basic and a year of Cadet training could not manage but nap time always did. With a sigh she set about fixing it only to stop when her hand met something unfamiliar. When trying to remove the something provoked a wince and hiss, she turned against Margret the secretary's desk to nab the compact she always kept in the top drawer. Cloud sat back down.

"Frigga." The mirror showed a long something, the same colour as her hair, thin and narrow with soft barbs, and dammit she'd grown out her hair as a small child specifically to end the chocobo comparisons. Should she invest in halter tops? The squad had wanted to take her shopping, and it would be nice to have something fitting, having outgrown most of what she'd arrived with. She cast her eyes around.

Margaret rolled around the desk: "Something the matter dear?"

"Where's the Colonel?"

"He's just stepped out for a moment. Why?"

Cloud waved the fingers pinching the offending filaments.

"He should probably know the feathers."

.o.o.o.o.o.

.o.o.o.o.o.

A.N.

A twenty minute ficlet in the same universe as Why Squad Epsilon Hates Their Uniform.

Interestingly, in canon Sephiroth has no rank other that First Class: "General Sephiroth" is Fannon, and for the age I imagine him at even Lt. Colonel is probably too high a rank, but between joining young, quickly climbing though the lower ranks and then field promotions whilst at war is my excuse. Angeal is now a General, but probably functionally a colonel since he still gets missions (Generals are not field officers: another reason why Seph is a Colonel) though maybe fewer since he has time for a student...


End file.
